Support Camp 1
Location: Veraval
On 23rd of December 2017, Mumbai-based donors Varjivandas Shah family and Raj Saubhag Ashram organized an aid and equipment support camp for the disabled in Verawal.
A total of 405, disabled people were provided wheelchairs, tricycles, artificial limbs, hearing aids, calipers and educational kit for the mentally challenged pupils, and other equipment to help them cope with on-going or recurring physical disabilities. All equipment was given free of cost.
In the first week of November 2017, 9 volunteers from Ashirwad Trust for the Disabled, Sayla surveyed 40 villages, distributed pamphlets, encouraged people to have their disabilities assessed during two diagnostic camp held in Shri Shantinath Jain Derasar on the 16th-17th of November and Navdurga Mataji Mandir in the last week of November. The volunteers required 9 days to reach most of the families in these 40 villages.
Doctors then arrived a fortnight after the survey team finished the initial task. During the diagnostic camp, the patients were assessed and their requirements noted.
On the 23rd of December, the entire support staff, doctors, volunteers and donors arrived to ensure that the equipment was handed over to the patient and he/she was advised about usage of the equipment. Among the equipment distributed were tricycles, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, crutches, C P walkers, hearing aids, surgical shoes and educational kits.
Support camps for the disabled have been known to provide immense relief to patients twice-cursed – by disease and by poverty.